Modus Vivendi
by SkyyeStrike
Summary: He comes across the boy on a Thursday afternoon in May. It's 3:24pm, sunny, and a little chilly out- springtime and the air is still cold. That's not what his focus is on. [M for later chapters and kink]


Come all you weary with your heavy loads,  
Lay down your burdens find rest for your souls.  
Cause my yoke is easy, and my burden is kind-  
I'll take yours upon me; you can take mine...

...

He comes across the boy on a Thursday afternoon in May. It's 3:24pm, sunny, and a little chilly out.

The boy is young… barely ten and small, on the edge of scrawny even with his pudgy, scarred up face. What had made him stand out was a shock of the brightest yellow hair Sasuke had ever seen inside his own home country of Japan. Natural blond hair, the color of poured gold and sunlight. It glints like fresh pounded metal in the grayish downtown streets of Konoha, catching the bleak rays of the sun trying to fight through the clouds.

His round, grubby face glares up into the face of the storekeeper, defiant for all that he was nearly trembling in his oversized sneakers and grungy too-big t-shirt. He was obviously not well taken care of, yet spirited all the same, despite the fact that the shopkeeper was jerking his arm at an awkward angle, shaking him in a scold.

The boys protests are loud and carrying, unignorable in the springtime air, turning heads but drawing no help. When Sasuke had been a boy, he'd stepped in on a fight for a friend and beaten the bullies to a pulp- years of Judo and self-defense classes had left Sasuke a tiny weaponized terror by the ripe age of thirteen. He'd earned himself a black eye and broken nose from the bullies, and a solid whipping from his father as well as the punishment of a lifetime. It had been enough to temper Sasuke's need for heroism at a young age.

And yet, here he is, almost thirty and Sasuke finds his feet turning towards the commotion before his head even catches up with his actions. He pushes through the crowd, against the stream of people, heads tucked down in obliging innocence of the situation. The boys protests are like a bell of luminance, hiding in plain sight, and it feels like Sasuke would be crazy to ignore the call.

He stops just before them, unsure. He's out of the throng of people now, standing a scant foot away from the spectacle everyone else is ignoring. He still has no idea why he is here.

The shopkeep catches sight of Sasuke and turns towards him, affronted. "Did ya need something?"

Sasuke looks at the shopkeep, aging into his forties unhappily, the grease stains on his apron and his ill-shaven, puffy face, pouching around his chin and neck. He has bags under his eyes, and stinks of too many cigarettes and not enough toothpaste. His hand is a large, meaty vice around the toothpick of a boy.

The boy turns, sniffling, and those big blue eyes are large enough to drown an ocean in. All at once, Sasuke feels his heart stutter and threaten to leap from his chest. The boy is a gleaming golden beacon next to this bleak grouch of a human.

Sasuke turns to the shopkeep, looking him squarely in his beady, irritated eyes. "I'm so sorry if my younger brother was bothering you sir. He gets into all sorts of mischief when the nanny wanders off. Women, am I right?"

Ice broken, the shopkeepers demeanor eases and he cracks a tobacco stained grin. "Oh, I know it sir. But this little shit of your brother was snitching at my wares, trying to take all my jerky-"

"He probably hasn't even had lunch yet today, isn't that right?" Sasuke cuts in, all cold professionalism, and he turns his hard gaze down to the boy, to his teary blue eyes and dirt tracked face. Blinking, somewhat confused, the boy nods a little hesitantly.

Making a quick decision, Sasuke digs through his inner coat pocket for his money clip, pulling out a few large bills before rerolling the rest and tucking them safely against his breast. He holds it out to the shopkeeper. "This should more than compensate for anything he's tried to ruin in your store sir. My apology." He holds his hands out stiffly to the boy. "Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll go get him some lunch and fire the caretaker."

At seeing the amount of money withheld out to him, the shopkeeper's eyes bulge like a frog's. All at once, his grip on the boy is gone, and Sasuke near tugs the boy to his side, letting the shopkeeper have the proffered money and ignoring the stammered thanks in response.

Sasuke grips the boy's hand in his tightly, a silent warning not to try and dart away once they started walking, fading into the city crowd like so many other people. When they were a safe distance away, Sasuke pulls them into a small convenience shop.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asks, perhaps too curtly, because the boy's eyes widen like dinner plates and his lips tighten in fear. Sighing in annoyance, Sasuke glances around and picks up a candy bar, something chocolatey and over sweet. He holds it up. "If I give you this, will you tell me your name?"

At the sight of the candy bar, the boy's jaw drops. If Sasuke thought his eyes had been huge before, they were even bigger now. A quick bout of nodding that makes the boy's whole body bobble like a toy.

Sasuke shakes his head and purchases the candy, giving it to the boy as they walk down the street side at a leisurely pace. When the boy is nearly done and sticky with chocolate, Sasuke tries again. "What's your name?"

Barely a glance in his direction before, "Naruto."

Naruto. A fish cake, was it? Sasuke's lips thin in distaste. "Well Naruto, I'm Sasuke." He says. The boy continues licking his fingers fastidiously, like it was the only thing he'd had to eat all week. Judging by his state, it probably was.

"Would you like some food, Naruto?" Sasuke asks, trying to be gentle and not quite sure if he's doing a passing job at it.

Naruto stops inspecting his mostly licked clean fingers and squints up at Sasuke. "Who are you?" He asks suspiciously. "Why are you helping me?"

To that, Sasuke doesn't really have an answer.

"I guess, I'd like to talk," He says instead. "Would you let me buy you a meal, Naruto?"

At the sound of food, Naruto's grubby face brightens several degrees until he resembles a veritable sun beneath all the dirt and grime. Suddenly, Sasuke is facing a ten mega-watt smile. "Really?!"

Unable to keep his lips from twitching, Sasuke nods. "Sure. What do you like to eat?"

At this, Naruto is practically bouncing up and down in excitement. "Really, really! Anything!"

Sasuke considers this, wondering how much of a hole he was digging himself by agreeing. "I suppose."

"Ramen?!"

Now Sasuke does smile. "I think we can get some ramen."

And then there's a vice-like grip of arms around his waist, and Naruto's sunshine bright head is buried in the stomach of his suit coat. "Yes! Thankyou thankyou thankyou! You're the nicest mister ever, mister!"

Sasuke stares down at the blonde mass wrapped around his middle in amusement. If this was his treatment for food was treated, he wondered how the boy would feel about staying the night on his couch?

Well. They'd find out, he supposed.

Ramen, apparently, was a big affair for Naruto. So far, he'd shoved four large bowls into his tiny little body and was still working on the fifth with a large amount of success.

Sasuke's own bowl was near empty and pushed to the edge of the counter, waiting to be picked up for disposal, and he was content to watch the young boy eat his fill and answer his questions.

Naruto didn't have any family that he knew of. He remembered what his mother looked like, but not his father, and not where either of them were. He'd been sleeping under bridges and on people's stoops, stealing and eating out of the garbage mostly, though he claims that tons of people would give him their spare change when they could. He was a whole nine years old.

He'd had a godfather at one point, who'd disappeared. Naruto had stayed in their apartment until the landlord had locked him out and told him to go find somebody else.

By the end of an hour, Sasuke had not only resolved to let the boy stay in his apartment, but to adopt him and put him through some kind of schooling. The boy was gifted to say the least, especially for making it on his own for this long.

He'd have to get the boy's permission of course.

The shop they're in right now is one the boy has been too often, in the past. The shopkeep greets him happily, though Sasuke's presence with Naruto gets some skepticism. Sasuke doesn't blame him. As it is, they're chatting away about something or other, a visit to a temple a few miles away. Sasuke wonders if Naruto walked the whole distance alone. He was too young to take a train by himself yet.

Sasuke shakes his head and motions for a bill from the shopkeep. When the older man walks away, he regards Naruto once again.

"Naruto. It doesn't seem like you are staying anywhere at this time… would you like to stay at my place? In my house?" Sasuke frowns. That didn't sound right. "I have a couch you could sleep on, and of course we'd get you some new clothes, but I have a TV, and there is a porch with a good view…" He stops. He was rambling. Was he…. Nervous about this?

Naruto is gaping at him silently, and for a second, Sasuke thinks that he really will say no, despite everything. And then, the little boy's face breaks into the brightest smile that Sasuke has seen yet. "Really Really Really?! Yes! Yeah!"

Of course the shouting starts again. Sasuke thinks that might be a going trend. He smiles, despite that. The ramen owner comes back with the check, and Naruto stands on his seat to shout the news. "Teuchi-san, Mister Sasuke is gonna let me watch TV at his place!"

Teuchi laughs. "Yes Naruto, I heard." He hands the check over to Sasuke with a wink, and when Sasuke glances at it, the price has been cut in half. He inclines his head to the owner who's already busy talking with Naruto again.

"He's gonna buy me clothes and that movies and a porch and stuff!" Naruto babbles, bouncing on the seat. "And I can sleep in a house and eat ramen EVERY DAY!"

"Whoa, what Naruto, I think you're getting ahead of yourself-" Teuchi tries laughing, but the boy is too wound up to listen, going on and on, and all Teuchi and Sasuke can do it listen and laugh.

Sasuke can't remember a time he smiled this much, or laughed at all. It has to have been years at this point. A very long time indeed, and he thinks that maybe, just maybe, Naruto will be good for him. At the very least, it will give him something else to focus on- a new purpose in life. Lord knows he needed it, that was for sure.

He lays more than enough cash on the table for Teuchi, and begins looking up bigger homes to accommodate a new member of the family.

...

 _So I started this when I was trying to write at a really desperate time in my life. I actually went homeless for a while, which is why I went radio silent on the web. I stopped being on facebook, tumblr, fanfiction, deviantart- pretty much everything. Even my emails for a while. Not really much wifi when you live out of cars._

 _But writing has always been salvation. So I wrote about what I wanted most in the only way that I knew how. Through fanfiction ;)_

 _Life has improved a lot for me now. I life in a house with 2 roommates and 3 awesome kitties. I have friends over every night and I write any moment I can. The other day, trying my best to rekindle old flames, I found this and it clicked. I figured, why not rework it into something I could post up here?_

 _This is probably the only chapter of the story mostly related to homelessness. I intend for it to be headed in a more risque and kinky direction._

 **BUT.**

 **I HAVE TWO VERSIONS OF THE STORY.**

 _One is supernaturally geared, the other is more normal._

 _PLEASE TELL ME WHICH YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE_

 _See this fic go Supernatural and give them both occultic gifts?_

 ** _OR_**

 _Keep them human and let the story drift other places?_

 _Let me know!_

Music: Come all you Weary - Thrice


End file.
